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Entry to the “Club”s

When you are setting up a long suit in a weak hand, you must be very mindful of entries to that hand. "Being mindful"means taking small risks that a suit will not break too badly to ensure that you make the contract with normal breaks. South’s line below may or may not have merit were clubs to break 5-1 (little merit, really) but meant they failed when the break was more friendly.

This involved also the age-old problem of misplaying at trick 1.

 West leads J. What's your plan to make 9 tricks, maybe even more, but 9 first of all. There is no bad break in spades.

No bad break in spades? You might think that a declarer was more concerned about such a bad break in the club suit!

After a normal auction with North just raising to 2NT, mindful that their singleton was in their partner’s long suit (not a great asset), South was soon in 3NT and looking at J lead. With six top tricks, South’s club suit was the obvious place to look for the extra. If that became a problem, then there was always the diamond suit.

However, to set up the club suit, and enjoy running them, declarer needed at least two entries to the South hand…and this was on the assumption that declarer played Q and 8 on the first trick. It was very easy to see where those two entries were, the Q and the K.

While it is normal when holding AKxx opposite Qx in a suit to win the first trick with the queen, we all know that there are times in bridge when the normal play and the correct play are not the same.

Going down…

That was what South was when they won the first trick with the Q and then played a club to dummy’s 8. East might have ducked this trick but won to switch to a heart. South won in hand and really should have abandoned the club suit but when they continued clubs, their last chance had gone.

For once, the card distribution was not going to punish declarer’s poor play at tricks 1 and 2. 

Gone!

East won the second club and continued spades. Stuck on dummy, declarer had to concede two diamonds, two clubs and a spade trick to be one down.

 
half shut..or half open?

Had South abandoned clubs and taken the diamond finesse and conceded one diamond, they would have scored four diamond, three spade and two heart tricks for a rather lucky nine tricks.

Keeping the door open

Plan, plan and then be sure before you play to trick 1. Then, South would have won the first trick in dummy, blocking at that point, the ability to take three spade tricks.At trick 2, overtake 8 with 9 and when that wins, continue a second club. East wins to play a major suit. It does not matter which as you win in the South hand, force out the other high club and use the entry in the other major to then enjoy playing your three remaining club winners.

You could say that even after South effectively “closed the door shut” on the clubs, there was an escape route to 9 tricks, this time by playing on diamonds. South would not always be so lucky and did fail to seize the opportunity.

There were 11 tricks available if South risked the diamond finesse but 10 comfortable ones otherwise…9 if South had to recover from poor play at tricks 1 and 2….and 8 if you did really lose track of what you should be doing.

For sure “entry” to the club(s), plan at trick 1 and be rewarded.   

A nice little bidding problem for you for tomorrow involving reversing:

3 is a slam try with 6+ spades. Suddenly, your strong hand feels a little less strong! What now?

Richard Solomon

 

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